Hunter's World
by Lucillia
Summary: Two brothers, one older, one younger, both fighting on the side of good to take down supernatural bad guys who prey on humans. Thanks to a wrong turn in the Nevernever, there's now two sets of them.
1. Run Away!

Thomas and I raced out of the Nevernever, taking a flying leap through the portal I had opened with a horde of pursuers hot on our heels. The first lot had been sent after us by Queen Mab, the rest had apparently joined in for the hell of it. Some of our pursuers were after the pair of snacks on two legs that had been stupid enough to dash into their territory as we fled from Mab's forces.

"Close it! Close it quick!" Thomas yelled as I moved seal the portal behind me.

The portal snapped shut the instant before our pursuers could get through. Yet another in a long line of close calls for the Wizard Dresden.

"And, that is why you **don't** try to seduce one of the queens of the Faerie!" I yelled at my brother. This little incident had oddly enough been Thomas' fault rather than mine. Usually when I run for my life, it was because of something I had either poked my nose into or had done. I had a bad habit of interfering in the plots of evil beings - be they men, wizards, faerie, or other - and that had made me a number of enemies over the years.

"I didn't! I didn't...well, not intentionally." Thomas said, protesting his innocence in the matter.

I soon started coming down from my adrenaline high when a new danger didn't immediately present itself, relieved that Mab had been amused enough to send several creatures of the Nevernever after us rather than chase us down and deal with us herself. If she'd really been pissed, we would already have been dead. Dead and buried, possibly with Thomas' head on a pike as a warning for the next White Court vampire who tried anything, intentionally or otherwise.

Looking around myself, I found that Thomas and I were by the side of an isolated country road, instead of in Chicago, which I had been aiming for. While that in itself wasn't entirely unusual, as we had taken a highly irregular detour through the Nevernever - which frankly could have spat us out anywhere from rural Illinois to Czechoslovakia - something about the situation felt slightly off...

"It's the magic." I finally decided as I called up a light, since it was the middle of the night and a new moon to boot (though I could have sworn the moon had been three-quarters full when Thomas and I had set out into the Nevernever). There was something just a tiny bit off about the magic that I had called to myself, and I couldn't exactly describe what it was. The...well, I guess that the best way to describe it would be that the flavor of the magic I had called up was slightly off. It's almost as if you ordered a Coke, and the waitress hands you a glass of Pepsi instead. Some people wouldn't even notice the difference, but...

Thomas gave me an odd look after I made my statement, probably hoping I would clarify. He could clearly feel it too, and it was causing him a great deal more distress than it was causing me.

"The magic around here feels different." I said, explaining my seemingly random comment.

"No shit Sherlock! Of course the magic feels different!" Thomas snapped. "We're in another freaking world, and we'll probably never be able to get back!"

I found myself staring at my brother, somewhat stupefied by shock. There had been stories of such things happening before, stories of wizards who had vanished never to be seen again, and even rarer stories of wizards who got back from places where magic followed different sets of rules, and therefore had to be relearned before the wizard could even try to get back. The most recent account that had been making its rounds through the community had been about a German wizard that had vanished for nearly a century, and had started burning every Harry Potter book he could get his hands on upon his return. I had taken that story and every other tale of its ilk to be the wizarding version of an urban legend, much as most of my kind generally do.

I promptly turned around and tried to create another portal into the Nevernever. I failed. I failed the next seventeen times I tried it as well. While it seemed after some testing that I could do almost all of my usual spells, albeit a little more slowly, and after thinking about them more carefully as there seemed to be an odd and somewhat ominous leftward twist to the magic in this world, making a portal into the Nevernever so Thomas and I could get home seemed to be a bit beyond my current abilities. This could be simply because I was too tired to do so since the chase and the experimenting with my powers had taken alot out of me, or it could be because of a rule of magic that my own world didn't have, such as "Doors to the Nevernever only open on alternate Thursdays at 10pm sharp". It would take time to find which out however, as I would need a while to rest up and recharge if it were the former, and find a local practitioner to help if it were the latter. Finding a local practitioner would be difficult and time consuming, as true practitioners are rare, and the field was full of wannabes who may or may not have some small measure of power.

As Thomas and I were walking in the direction we hoped held a nearby town and therefore food and rest, a black muscle car blew past us. I probably wouldn't have noticed the car, except for the fact that it seemed to be the only car on the road tonight, illustrating how isolated my half-brother and I were in this strange new world that - besides the difference in phases of the moon and the odd twist to the native magic - may be nearly identical to the one we had just left. At least the cars here were similar to the ones back home, since I was reasonably certain that the car that had passed by was a Chevy.

We reached the town that lay in the direction we had chosen by the flip of a coin after two hours of walking. We would have gotten there about an hour sooner if I hadn't twisted my ankle in a gopher hole on the side of the road fifteen minutes in after my light went out. Fortunately for us, a motel was one of the first things we saw when we reached something that approached civilization. As Thomas got us checked in - since he wasn't as bad at frying technology by standing next to it as I was - I noticed that the car that had blown by us - or at least one that looked very much like it - was parked in the lot.

After several hours of rest, Thomas went out into the early morning and got us some supplies, including a newspaper so we could see what was going on in the world we had found ourselves in. As it turned out, we were in rural Illinois, just not our rural Illinois. The front page of the paper contained the story of a third child to have gone missing from the local community in the last month. After seeing the picture and reading the article, and re-reading the article - careful to take note of what appeared to be between the lines - there was only one thing I could do.

Despite the fact that I wasn't going to get paid for this, the fact that I was in an entirely different world where the rules probably weren't quite the same, and the fact that getting home should be my first priority, Harry Dresden was on the case.

&!&!&

Dean had been going out to the car to retrieve his suit for his FBI routine from the spot in the trunk where he usually kept it carefully folded when not in use after he'd learned that Sam had forgotten it when the two men walked past, engaged in a loud argument.

One of the men was taller than Sam, which was saying something as Sam was about 6' 4", and the other was around his height, maybe a couple inches taller. Both men had dark hair, and there seemed to be an easily overlooked resemblance between the two, as the shorter of the two was far more attractive and muscular. Not that the taller guy looked to be out of shape or anything. The shorter of the two men was dressed in jeans - and just about nothing else - and the taller one looked like he'd gotten his clothing out of a western wear catalog. The leather trenchcoat he had thrown over his clothing made the coat Castiel wore look stylish in comparison.

"We don't even know if things work the same here! It could simply be a mundane problem that just looks a little bit like it was done by something supernatural. Let the local authorities handle this. Our first priority is to get back home!" the half naked man who looked like what most male models wished they could be with his well sculpted muscles, curly dark hair, and intense gray eyes shouted at the slightly taller of the pair.

"You saw the article yourself! It's got all the earmarks of troll activity, and there's no way in hell I'm going to let another kid get eaten if I can help it!" the other man yelled back.

Dean smirked at the pair of Hunters. Apparently he and Sam hadn't been the only Hunters who had noticed what was going on around here, and been drawn in to investigate. What made the guy think it was a troll that was doing this though? The research he and Sam had done had indicated that it was more of a ghost problem.

He just hoped that the new Hunters who'd turned up wouldn't get in their way, as they'd had bad experiences when they'd run into other Hunters recently. Maybe if he offered to join up with them, he would be able to keep an eye on them and be able to get the drop on them if they turned out to be trouble later on. He'd been too burned by the whole thing with Gordon Walker to even come close to implicitly trusting another Hunter, especially a Hunter he didn't know.

One thing he could say for certain about the two men was that they most definitely weren't shape-shifters, as he could see that both men were wearing silver necklaces. The half naked one had a pentacle on his, which was rather odd for a Hunter, even though they were supposed to ward off evil. He wasn't sure what was on the other one's, as it was tucked into his shirt.

Coming to a decision, Dean walked up to the two men before their argument could turn violent.

"So, I couldn't help but overhear that you're looking into the recent disappearances." Dean said when the two men fell silent upon noticing him.

"What's it to you?" the half naked man asked.

"Well, me and my brother Sam are looking into them as well, and if we teamed up, we'd get the job done faster." Dean replied, noting that the taller - and leaner - of the two was eying him suspiciously.

"There, see Harry, somebody's already looking into it. Now you can focus on getting us home." the half naked one - whom Dean had begun to notice smelled real nice - said.

The argument started up again from there, with the added topic of whether or not to accept Dean's offer of assistance if they did indeed decide to investigate the situation. Dean however didn't really notice because he was trying to find a way to get alot closer to the half naked guy without him noticing. As the argument progressed, Dean inched his way towards his target, until he was standing so close to the guy that they were practically touching. The man didn't really react to this, opting to give Dean an odd look before going back to his argument with the other man.

It was at that point that Sam came out of his and Dean's room, wondering exactly what had been taking Dean so long. They both should have been dressed, ready, and on the road by now.

"Dean, are you alright?" Sam asked upon spotting his brother, causing Dean to jump, suddenly realize exactly what it was he had been doing, and swiftly back away from the very attractive half naked man.

"Uh, Sam, this is...uh." Dean said, gesturing at the two men helplessly.

It was at that moment that Castiel appeared, stopping the two men's argument in mid-sentence. Castiel gazed at the two men with that intent look he had when he didn't understand something, and wanted clarification. Both men stared back at the angel warily.

"You do not belong here." Cas finally said.


	2. Guns Never Solve Anything

**Author's note that I should have put at the beginning of chapter one:** This story is set during the Fourth Season of Supernatural, and somewhere between Small Favor and Turn Coat for the Dresden Files. Now on with the story.

&!&!&

It had been less than a second after the wizard? other magical being? made his statement about the fact that I and my brother didn't belong to this world that he looked me in the eyes as he gave a curious head tilt. Our gazes locked, one second, two, thr...damn, he didn't instinctively look away first like almost everyone else did on instinct...the Soulgaze was about to start, either I looked away now, or never...and...HOLY SHIT!

Never Soulgaze with an angel, it's about the most painful thing you can do with your Sight. I'm lucky my eyes didn't melt, and my brain didn't fry in the instant I got a look at that guy's true self. The fact that they hadn't is only down to the fact that Wizards are slightly hardier than normal people, and I had the sense to look away after less than half a second. All I can tell you about it is LIGHT! LIGHT! LIGHT! BURNS! BURNS! I thank all that is holy that I didn't try that with Uriel back home.

I must have passed out or something, because the next thing I knew, I was on the ground and Thomas was trying to get my attention. Considering the fact that I'd just gone through the psychic equivalent of being hit over the head with a tanker while staring directly at the sun while I was less than three feet away from it, that was completely understandable.

"The wizard and the vampire did not come here intentionally." the angel stated matter-of-factly.

The reaction this caused in the other two men was almost instantaneous. One second, the man who had walked up to us and started latching onto Thomas earlier had been looking at me in concern, and the next he had a gun on me, while the other man who was presumably Sam moved towards the open trunk of their car. In the short glimpse of the first man's green eyes that I got before I disconnected eye contact in order to not undergo another soulgaze and possibly finish killing myself, I noticed that they were hard and cold, and that something dark lurked behind them.

Thomas moved in front of me to protect me, while I called up a shield and drew my own gun. Something about this seemed to surprise the men, whether it was Thomas protecting me, or the fact that I'd pulled out a gun rather than attempt any spells, I do not know. Before the situation could deteriorate further however, the angel intervened.

"Dean, I cannot allow you to do this." The angel said, gripping Dean's gun hand and pulling it away. "The wizard is marked by the Heaven of his world."

That confused me for a moment, until I remembered that the Archangel Uriel had given me the ability to use Soulfire recently.

"There's more than one Heaven?" the man named Dean asked in surprise as he lowered his weapon, so it wouldn't accidentally go off and hurt someone he didn't mean to if the angel continued to push his hand.

"Yes and no." the angel replied.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Thomas asked.

"While each world has its own Heaven which is complete in and of itself, each Heaven is part of the infinite whole." the angel replied.

"I don't get it." Dean said.

"I think I do." the man who was presumably Sam - who had been in the process of rifling through a hidden compartment in the trunk of the Impala that contained a miniature armory - said. "It has to do with the Multiverse hypothesis. If everyone who died in every universe in the Multiverse went to the same place, it's possible that you would run into a trillion people who are you, but aren't you you, since the worlds they lived in and the decisions they made sent them down different paths. It was probably less stressful for everyone involved to divide the whole of Heaven up into infinite parts and build a Heaven for each universe so nobody ran into themselves, and suffered from the possible consequences."

"What possible consequences?" Dean asked.

"Would you be happy if you ran into a you who say, didn't make the deal to save me and consequently let me die, or a you who had never hunted because mom was still alive because I was never born?" the man that I was reasonably sure was Sam asked.

Dean's expression tightened at this. Clearly, the answer to both questions was no. In my opinion, Heaven would be a pretty miserable place if I ran the risk of running into versions of me who had made the right decision where I had made the wrong one. I could understand why the creator had kept things separate so that wouldn't happen.

"And no, I didn't get sidetracked." the man I was now certain was named Sam said as he brought up a crossbow and aimed it at Thomas. "There's still the vampire to deal with."

Fortunately, Thomas was standing close enough to me for me to bring up a shield around him as the man fired. Both Sam and Dean looked a little surprised when the arrow that looked like it had blood on the head hit nothing and bounced down to the ground. This shield was made to stop bullets, there was no way a measly arrow would get through.

"I would appreciate it if you didn't try to kill my brother." I said, as I pulled up the revolver which I still held, and aimed it at the man who had attempted to shoot Thomas.

Sam and Dean turned to look at each-other. "Brother?" Dean mouthed. Sam looked at us with an expression of pity, and dropped the crossbow back into the trunk clearly realizing that killing Thomas wasn't worth getting himself and/or his brother killed.

&!&!&

Dean stared at the two brothers and wondered if that could have ended up being him and Sammy after a hunt gone bad. Looking more closely at the two men, he could see the resemblance that he'd almost thought was a coincidence earlier, and that it wasn't as vague as he'd idly noted when he'd first spotted the two men. There was something about the shapes of their faces and their bone structure that was similar despite the fact that one was a wiry beanpole with a slightly hawkish profile, and the other was six inches shorter and rather muscular with more aristocratic features. Both men also had dark hair. One with a really dark muddy brown head of hair that was almost black, and the other with a head of hair that was raven wing black with a set of almost impossible iridescent highlights. He had the feeling that he and Sam weren't the only set of siblings that frequently got mistaken for a gay couple.

Would he have hung around if Sam was turned into a vampire, or would he have found it within himself to kill his brother as he had been unable to do when Meg had possessed him and attempted to goad him into doing so? He could totally see himself trying to find a spell or potion or something that would keep Sam Sam after he turned, if he were in the other man's position. He had once spared a group of vampires who had done their best not to be human killing monsters before at Sam's behest, so why not spare Sam if something similar came to pass?

The whole Wizard and Vampire from another world thing wasn't something he could quite wrap his head around, but he could understand a pair of brothers looking out for each-other. The wizard couldn't be that bad, considering the fact that he'd been marked by heaven, but then again, besides Castiel, the other angels he and Sam had encountered so far had been dicks. He wouldn't put it past them to recruit a guy who had made a deal for power and come to regret it, and chuck him aside when they were done with him.

"So," Dean said as his brain latched onto something familiar, and brought him back to earth, something that had to do with the job he'd came here for, a job that the wizard and the vampire had inadvertently butted into. "What were you saying about a troll earlier?"

"Huh?" the tall one who was standing protectively in front of his vampire brother who was putting out more charm than John Wellington Wells during an inventory reduction sale said eloquently, looking completely thrown for a loop.

Damn. He'd thought that he'd forgotten about that stupid Gilbert and Sullivan song. He was going to kill Sam for that, and then he was going to kill the vampire for earlier as soon as he was certain that the wizard wouldn't suspect him and blow him to kingdom come, either his, or the wizard's.

"The hunt." Dean said, deciding to continue defusing the situation before it got any uglier. The angel had clearly stated that the wizard was off limits, and the wizard had made it clear that the vampire who was rather oddly not weakened by the sunlight was off limits as well unless he and Sammy wanted to get their heads blown off.

"Hunt?" both the wizard and his vampire brother said at the same time, looking at each-other in confusion.

"You know what? Forget it." Dean said as he grabbed his "Federal Agent" suit and walked back to his room to change, with Sammy following after after slamming and locking the Impala's trunk.

As far as Dean was concerned, if he ever saw those two again, it would be too soon. Hopefully, they'd go back to their own world quickly, and he'd never have to deal with them again. Knowing his and Sam's luck however, he had a sneaking suspicion that that was not to be.

&!&!&!&

Castiel studied the two that had accidentally entered their world through the realm of the Faerie which spanned across a number of the worlds. While on the surface it appeared to be an accident, he couldn't rule out the possibility that the heaven of their world was interfering somehow, despite the fact that they weren't supposed to, as each world had its own fate which wasn't to be messed with. The two men were similar to Sam and Dean in a number of ways, and being like Sam and Dean, they could disrupt any number of plans, and interfere with fate in ways they were never meant to.


End file.
